Family, friendship, and the struggle to find oneself’s place in the world were the big themes on my list this year. Looking back the year might not have offered me the clear winner to top the list (I gave out no perfect score for any film this year), but it still offered a solid list of ten movies worth noting and celebrating. As always, I tried to see as much as possible but there are a few films, most notably Whiplash and Gone Girl, which eluded me. Others like Foxcatcher, Inherent Vice, and American Sniper won’t release in my home market in 2014 (and which I was unable to view and/or review before the publishing of this list) are also not included (although you might see a couple of them turn up in my mid-year list of Best Movies of 2015 So Far next year). Enough with what didn’t make the cut, here is my list of the Top Ten Movies of 2014.

Here’s my look back at the ten best single comic issues from the past year. Including ongoing series, one-shots, and mini-series, the only limitations I put on this list was that the comic had to have been released in 2013 (no reprints) and I limited myself to only a single issue from any one title. Because I was focusing on standout issues rather than consistently strong comics every month several of my favorite series missed the cut, but, if time permits, I may work up my regular list of best comic series of the past year as well.

You’ve been thinking, “Who will ever tell me what the Ten best movies of the year are?”

Well, sir or madam, I am here to help you. As the person with the best taste in Cinema (me), I am the authority to seek just such information out from. I would be happy to meaningfully contribute to you in providing these facts.

Scene-Stealers contributor Phil Fava provides a list of 10 specific movie kung-fu fights as landmarks in their respective eras and as enduring pieces of painstakingly realized, elaborate entertainment. See for yourself.

I don’t know what you guys are doing reading all those phoney top ten lists over there, what with their overpraise of films in which women shit in bathroom sinks.

A shame, that – after all, this, mine, is the authoritative tome that Scholars will look back on and shower with statuses of validity upon as the definitive list. “Yeah, you know what, The Artist wasn’t a lot more than a nice movie, Sparkle was totally right,” they’ll say a thousand years from now. And I shall smile down on them from Future Heaven, which is just like regular Heaven but with astronaut food, hover boards, and a hilarious robot that is actually pretty good at Stand-Up.

The new alien comedy “Paul,” starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as two British nerds who discover an alien in Area 51, opened last weekend in theaters. The military vs. alien invasion action pic “Battle: Los Angeles” has been raking it in as well. In June, J.J. Abrams releases the highly anticipated “Super 8,” which deals with an alien presence found in 1979 Ohio.

There are not a huge amount of films that deal seriously with the matter of extra-terrestrials and UFOs, but this list compiles the best. Here’s the Top 10 First Contact / UFO Movies.